This is from a Janome website: In Japanese, the word Janome (pronounced Ja-NO-me) means "eye of the snake." The company earned the name in the 1920s when founder Yosaku Ose, a pioneer in Japanese sewing manufacturing, began to use a round metal bobbin system instead of the traditional long shuttle. The Japanese thought the new round bobbin looked like a snake's eye, and from the innovative design, a name was born.
I left in the info about the name because i though it was interesting. The site is:
http://content.janome.com/index.cfm/AboutJanome